The DVD Forum has approved the physical disc specifications for the rewritable version of HD-DVDs (High Definition/High Density-DVDs), taking the format an important step nearer to mass production.

At a meeting in Taiwan on Sept. 22, the association approved version 1.0 of the HD-DVD-RW physical specification, which covers a single-layer disc with a capacity of 20G bytes, Junko Furuta, a Toshiba Corp. spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

Version 1.0 is the key specification that allows manufacturers to consider mass production of a product involving new technologies.

The association also approved version 0.9 physical specifications for the HD-DVD-R (recordable) disc at the same meeting. The HD-DVD-R discs will be single-layer 15G-byte capacity discs, Furuta said. Version 1.0 is expected to be approved by the association in February 2005, Yoshihide Fujii, president and CEO of Toshiba Digital Media Network Company, said at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.

The organization approved version 1.0 of the physical specifications for HD-DVD-ROM discs in June this year. HD-DVD-ROMs will be single-layer, 15G-byte discs or dual-layer, 30G-byte discs.

The physical specification defines the physical properties of the disc such as the number of layers and capacity. The application specifications, which define how data signals are written into the structure of the discs, will be decided before the end of February 2005, Furuta said.